₦airaland Forum

wahala dey - p 2
all timaya songs
all new beyonce songs





I love Lady Gaga's songs,

diaby had a goog game but seemed to drop off at 70 mins ghuess he was fatigued
The pipes of the night were Anelka and Govou and yet the tarot master did not make any change till 79 min
Henry + Malouda + Gignac were superb but came in too late

that toulalna is a superb DM, song can learn from him

Billy is washed out

The chamakh signing is a culmination of a season long debacle,

she was doing a fund raising party

facebook link pls

GBAM!!!

a40 wetin man go do?

forget his saves in the first half he was still jittery all the game

i hear gary cahill may leave bolton we need a strong/young df

AW did not make any tatical changes, no new instructions to his boys nothing just passive like a fish left to roast and removed the only forward threat aside rvp in the team, nasri and diaby were busy nowhere on the pitch leaving sol n bacary spaying passes from df. he shd have just played mannone and eastmond
theo as usual left his initiative in the dressing room and only rvp showed that he wanted somwthing from the game
silvestre could have been sent off while traore tried ok.Vela as usual was s.h.y.t.e.

forget the kicking, this was not as bad as stoke or b'ham.



i heard a funny rumor from a bird and i will not be surprised if it is true

that aw wants to come fourth so that we can make extra money from ucl play offs

i hope and wish is its not true

This man is so a dreamer,

On Fabianski’s performance…
“I think it was a foul on both goals. There is no purpose to play the ball from the Blackburn players. Every time it’s to stop the keeper from getting to the ball. And in football when you don’t go for the ball, when you stop your opponent, the keeper, from going for the ball it’s a foul.”



On this game affecting Fabianski’s confidence…
“I think he had a good game. It should affect the confidence of the referee.”

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/-they-were-sharper-in-the-fight-than-us-

I thought it was a very poor football game overall. But we were 1-0 up and after that we couldn't score the second. We had a few chances, then of course I believe both goals were not regular.

"Their (Blackburn's) main purpose every time is to stop the goalkeeper, not go for the ball, and both times for both goals that happened."

Asked if Fabianski was at fault in any way, Wenger defended the goalkeeper.

"No," he said. "I think he had no chance as a goalkeeper, he was pushed every time."

Did we watch the same game? Flapianski is a stupid Arrow and is worse than Ben Foster
Dudu any comments on today's game?



Oh and today we had some LANS invading the arsenal bench


Eduardo, Arshavin, Djourou and Gibbs, Yippee!

Liyoli, pls can you remove the pix of the crashes we have seen enough

can you put up other pixes so we can appreciate the life of the young man\

Prepare for the invasion of the LANS this summer,

duduspace:
Did you notice the caveat I put about it being (in their positions?) Bendtner is not first choice and Theo is definitely not first choice, Nasri is first choice but he definitely isn't first choice for the role he played. Stop this scare mongering about next season, even when we were in worse shape we didn't go out of the top 4, is it now that we have better strength in depth, with enough money to improve the squad or now that everyone is going the youth route that we will?.

i will say i said so come may 2011

Really dudu ask yourself one question

Has the youth policy really paid off, we ssupposedly disband the high wage earners but still our wages are still comparable to manu's now Cesc is the top dog with 110k and other pipes like denilson, walcott and co making like 50 or so while they shd be paid much less

TV5 being voted in the team of the year to me is ok but not so sure he deserved it
This team conceded far more gols than last season and he failed his first baptism of fire at the Bridge going down to Drogba who scored two gol and he scored an own goal rather than letting DD do the honors

His giving the penalty at Burnley, Westham and his poor positional play at times exposed Almunia

JT's off the field issues may have contributed in TV5 getting it

duduspace:
Lots of goals in fact, only that in the despondence of not winning trophies this is all soon forgotten. Vela got quite a number last season and Theo has gotten a good number even this season but people are quick to forget that Sturridge infact is only 6 months younger than Theo and Vela.
While Chelsea had their fair share of injuries, you can't compare it in any way to ours. By the time we played Wigan, the only first choice players (in their positions) on the pitch were the full backs and Diaby.

Arsenal Team against Wigan

Lukasz Fabianski
Bacary Sagna
Sol Campbell
Mikael Silvestre
Gael Clichy
Craig Eastmond
Tomas Rosicky
Samir Nasri
Abou Diaby
Theo Walcott
Nicklas Bendtner

I did not know when Nasri, Bendtner and Walcott were no more first choice players for Arsenal lets even excuse Rosicky
dudu stop spewing, the team has perfomed poorly compared to the last term though we increased in position with a more rabid pack of Sp*rs,Citeh and Villa on our tail like never before, and with the reorganisation of Liverpool on the ranks. There might be a major shakeup of the Top 4 next season

If you are talking of tweaking, the first team off the mark is ManU. This is a team that still is in the reckoning despite losing Tevez n CR7
They just need a GK, a striker and a creative midfielder and off they go

We all know what we need but will the man buy

HNIC:
After the window closed in summer, I stated that we will compete if important players didn't get injured and some fringe players 'step up'.

injuries to the arsenal team is like what trophies are to InterMilan. they will come we all knew that

The irony of the fringers is that they may really have stepped up only that their best was not good enough all along ,

duduspace:
We dey o, currently strategizing for next season. Do look forward to more GK's being sent to extended spells on the sidelines by the new improved Diaby next season.
We need more variation in the way we play, imagine more shorts like that? half of the PL Keepers would have needed shoulder reconstruction surgery.

When your team does not believe in shooting,,, i believe sha next season they will do the needful

@rikky

we never left, kpas!

Third place was our aim hence the lack of excitement about the match

duduspace:
But Biola, is it not the same people who will be in front of Sorensen or whoever we bring in 
now I'm not being particular about Szczesney, but the GK (whoever he may be) wouldn't solve whatever other defensive issues we have, would he?

And you can forget almost forget about Lloris, Arsene has already ruled him out as being too expensive, something thats quite likely considering his age and all the buzz he's getting, now if only Arsene could pull another Lehmann out of the hat.

We need a defensive coach,  i think martin keown was helpful in the 2006 UCL run. Wenger can not teach defense. its just like a marketer in a biz withput the control required from the audit team. nigel winterburn is also available

Great strikers win you games
Great defence (+ keeper) win you titles

bet with me, a team like arsenal that has a huge penchant for attaking will always be found short at the back except we find a balance.

Sorensen will be ok for me and wojnech can now be second keeper learning and then take up the mantle

dudu i say again iker had salgado, hierro, helguerra, carlos n redondo in front

schezezny will have sagna, gallas, verma, clichy n song


abeg we need an experienced keeper heck even sorensen will do but lloris will be ideal.

GBAM!!!

[quote author=kay_pumpin link=topic=400313.msg5940902#msg5940902 date=1272024248]While this season's meltdown can be attributed partly to injuries,i still look back at some games and feel we have no excuse dropping points.

Here is where we need instant improvement.

* We need grit/power when beautiful football doesn't work.
* Our set-pieces need to be taken serious as it seems there no training ground stuff in any of it.
* The lads(and i mean all of them) need to be taught the art of defending and pressing against the opponent.An element of this was shown in the early part of this season against Everton and Celtic but it faded as the season pans out.
*He needs the hair dryer treatment more often,It worked against Liverpool at Anfield and believe me it is a good development.Wenger seems to pamper his wards far too much and it's obvious in their disposition on the field.
*I have learnt from anatomical and physio stuffs from Arsenal injury woes than i have learnt in my entire sojourn to cop Human Anatomy B.sc in the Uni.Something has to be done about these injuries plus our next set of signings should be double-checked for injury worries.
*This squad needs to win something,anything for a winning aura to be commenced and eventually sustained.



I feel most of your assertions are based on hoping the other clubs drop their level of progression and improvement.Nothing here suggest for example that Abramnovich wouldn't do a major clear-out of his Chelsea,get the top of the bunch and compete at this level again.Same goes to Man U,Man City and to an extent Tottehnam.So why do you feel these present squad and its gaffer who's been known to capitulate when it matters and do agidi over transfers respectively wouldn't be found out next season?[/quote]Bros even if Chelsea and ManU do not reinforce as dudu expcets, this team will still crash at the final moment,
dudu over to you

Wenger & Gazidis : meeting and spending

By Myles Palmer

What will happen at Arsenal this summer?

The club has an old board, an old manager and a young squad.But Arsenal need a younger board, a younger manager, and an older team

While building a big new stadium, the club gave the manager far too much power.

Historically, Arsenal have craved stability as a club. They have never been relegated. And their main aim since 2005 has been to finish in the top four, rake in big money from the Champions League, and pay off the debt.

In January 2009 they hired Ivan Gazidis, a young CEO, to work under Wenger, since it had become Wenger's club.

Gazidis, 45, is a corporate lawyer who has never worked in a pressurised situation.

He helped to set up the MLS which has a salary cap of $2m per club and no promotion of relegation. The MLS had start from scratch, almost. They had to build stadiums, set up a refereeing network, work very hard for every ticket sold, and keep working hard to compete with NFL, the NBA, the NHL and baseball.

Then Gazidis came to Arsenal and found it was a one-man club. Wenger was a dictator surrounded by yes-men. He trained in Austria, would not tour, signed French and African players, as he did at Monaco, would not allow much access to his pampered babies, saw himself as the only manager who could develop young players, and could not imagine retiring until he had won the Champions League.

For a CEO, this situation is horrible. A CEO should be able to replace the coach.

I laughed when I read that Wenger and his advisors would sit down with Gazidis in the summer and talk about a new contract. He won’t sign a new contract this summer. I’ll bet my entire record collection, and including my Little Feat, Hendrix and Stones bootlegs, that he won't sign a new contract this summer.

Wenger isn't sure he’s up to it any more. His behaviour on the touchline has been worse than ever this season. There’s a bigger element of masochism now. He was furious at the players for throwing away a 2-0 lead at Wigan but he should be angry with himself because he knows all teams get injuries and every player on the pitch was his player. If pros are 2-0 up in 80 minutes they should win, not lose 3-2.

But I wasn't shocked, as some people were. Rob Hughes told me he was really shocked by Arsenal’s collapse. I wasn’t shocked or angry. I saw it and wrote it and forgot about it.

That is Wenger’s Arsenal : a brittle French team.

I was at the Emirates when the crowd were flying at 4-2 up against Spurs but Arsenal drew 4-4 and I wrote that season off right there. In the heat of the moment. Then I went home and calmed down and thought about it and wrote a piece saying : this season is over. This team cannot win anything this season. That was on October 30th, 2008. I wrote the season off on October 30. And I was proved right.

With Vermaelen out, I wasn't surprised they lost 3-2 at Wigan, a team in the relegation zone.

Clearly, Wenger makes a profit every year. The board value his ability to make a profit.

Will they offer him a new contract till 2014 because he makes a profit?

If they do, and he won’t commit, should they let him spend £30 million this summer?

Will he sign it before he goes to South Africa to cover the World Cup for French TV? If he did it would be the first time he has ever signed a contract in the summer.

I can't see him signing in the summer. He's 50-50, he doesn't know what he will do. He is very unlikely to own up, to admit his kids strategy is wrong. His seven Arsenal trophies were won by experienced players.

Deep down, Wenger wants to stay and pursue his ideas and prove us all wrong.

And I reckon the board will give him another year to fail. But they are very concerned that corporate boxes, Club Level and season ticket renewals might be sluggish. The 4,000-5,000 ticket-holders who don't turn up might just say : I don't need this any more, it’s too expensive, I don't rate this team, why should I bother if Wenger refuses to buy a class goalkeeper and three 25-year old players?

Ivan Gazidis won’t sit down with Wenger and insist : Buy a great goalkeeper. He won’t insist : Buy a star ! He won’t say : You needed Jack Wilshere at Wigan, Arsene. Why is he on loan at Bolton? Why was Merida on the pitch?

The meeting won’t be like that. We all know it won’t he like that. What will probably happen is this : Wenger won’t sign a new contract. He will see how next season is going in terms of results, crowds and corporate sales, see how he feels, and then, during the season, decide to stay or go.

In the longer term, Arsenal need to become a big club, rather than a club with a big turnover.

There is no mystery about how you become a big club. You don’t need the Boston Consulting Group to do a Strategic Review to tell you how to become a big club. You win trophies. Success makes you a big club. Finishing third and fourth does not make you a big club. Silverware and glory make you a big club. You need a team of winners, not a team of whingers. Achieve success with a team that knows how to win, the rest follows. Everything else follows from that : boxes, Club Level, big sponsorship deals, merchandise, shirt sales, DVDs, publicity, happiness, everything.

Obviously, a new star would generate massive shirt sales. A star is news - and news is free advertising.

Only Fabregas and Van Persie sell shirts.

Arsenal need a player big enough to sell replica shirts outside the UK.

Messi and Rooney do that. Torres and Cristiano do that.

When you come third, it's not exciting.

When you win, the world comes to you


http://www.arsenalnewsreview.co.uk/index.php?mact=News%2Ccntnt01%2Cdetail%2C0&cntnt01articleid=1577&cntnt01returnid=42&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ArsenalNewsReview+%28ANR%3A+Arsenal+News+Review%29&utm_content=FeedBurner

nice one kay

and Sauron Arsenal FC as last year had a higher turnover than ManU.
Also u declared an operating loss but had a profit due to player sales,

At the time the Glazers bought Manure they were valued at approx £800m-£1bn, and are still only worth £1.1 bn now….

The Glazers bought United for 700 million pounds. . . . .until the fall of pounds during the recession, the club was worth $1.8 billion.

@Sauron read well 1.1 billion pounds or 1.8 billion dollars
U need wipes

@dudu
we appreciate the financial picture but it still does not exceuse our poor defending, proneness to injury, loss of concentration in some games, not utilising set pieces, etc

the truth is this only one team can win the title so even if we spend 300m usd at once it may not mean squat(real?) but at least let the ethos of the team be better, get better squad players ,

OgidiBoy:
The one in the blue fights like my Yoruba brothers. Always talking trash but won't step up to the plate and fight.

I think u r right and the other dude had like an ibo accent
but if the white guy don connect with the blue guy, na hospital. the guy is built,

who heeard the jamo guy spoiling for a show?

[quote author=A-40 link=topic=400313.msg5932465#msg5932465 date=1271889944]@Biolabee
O le nu bi ATM Machine![/quote]

I agree we need a left winger who can bring a second dimension to our game if we find it tough against some kninds of opposition

Inn addition to the pass pass pass which is too much even Sagna dey complain,, I have some other things we need to change

1. Poor defending against set pieces

2. We need to have a reliable free kick taker. van P shd step up and calibrate his FKs just like CR7 used to do, he takes one its a miss the next one is a goal.I feel the club and manager look down on such freekicks which can be easy goals for us

3. We need to be more incisive and get into the box more often. A team with the amount of possession we have should be having morepenalties remember aa23 against stoke

4. We need to be more ruthless and that from the get go. I get the feeling we take things easy and start piling pressure by 20 mins. I think the earliest gol within 10 mins was against westham and that was a shot by denilson


Gooner!!!!!!! where are you

thanks A40  which is why i think we need a true winger type on the left who can do what theo is doing on the right at times when we need to break some types of ooponnents

AA23 is good but left wide player with pace will allow him to find spaces in the box

slimshay:
on the contrary many have postulated that this was the reason for Liverpool almost succesful last season. Not that I'm supporting that formation anyways. Cos like you said, where then does Fabregas fit in.

i dont know if cesc and aa23 will be able to play in the center together as they are game controllers and one has to dtermine the flow.another such player is nasri
presently cesc is the king of the midfield and playing each of the above two will be counterproductive (i think?)

the only way to play that way is to sell cesc buy a MF type like Makoun or Cissokho to support Song in the MF
nasri or aa23  would play in the center(reminisecent of sneijder) behind the 2 strikers but like a messi or gourcoeff player who can rove across the field.
theo would be on the right and then the left winger would be necessary



It would be change from the current way we play but the MF would be strong and the wing play would be effective and would be a second dimension in short pre-Emirates way of play

@A40

basically a 4312 formation
However the problem here may be creative control of the centre with AA23 and Fab4.
The current way of playing them allows them space. AA down the left and cesc thru the center
if cesc leaves, i dont think this will be an issue for nasri to play these formation

dudu if u cld analyse it this way why have you made yourself the man shouting against the horde

i will take salient points from your post

Chamakh might just turn out to be for us what Tevez was for Manure in terms of getting free transfers. We already have the striker thingy sorted now, if Bendtner who will drop to 3rd choice can score 9 goals in 11 games, then we're spoilt for choice in that area, and I do expect Vela to step up and not be content with number 4 striker status. Maybe a fruitful World cup campaign will be the wake up call he needs.

Chamakh will be an average striker and will need someone to play off of. This will require a change from the 433 to a 442 or 4312 to accomodate both rvp and chamakh.Looking at the leagues and UCL, He has scored 15 gols compated to nickys 11 and i want to bet will not be much better than Nb52 who has managed in the more physical league.

I would expect us to get in at least a quality CB and a quality CM to provide competition in those places.

This i agree,

I personally would go for Szczesney as our new GK but I'm not under the pressure Arsene is, so he probably will opt to shell out for a new keeper but I can assure you that boy is quality and I expect him to become Poland's number 1 in the next 2 years, just ask Brentford fans who have been asking how come we allowed him go on loan to them while fielding Almunia.

This is true and from reviews, he is being touted the same way as iker was when he broke through. but while Iker had helguerra,salgado, hierro, roberto carlos and redondo in midfield for him to blood him and give him confidence our young keeper will have gallas,gael,sagna,verma and song. what difference in class. dont get me wrong our guys are ok, but what pisses me game after game is our lack of organisatiom in defending set pieces and playing high lines with our paceless DF which will continually fail and expose the keeper. Ive always said it if VDS or Casillas they will at least concede 75% of the goals that Flappymunia concedes and its due to our defending ethos generally

I'll review again come august and give my verdict, this club is so close now, I don't see Chelsea spending another 100m neither do I see Manure doing much in the summer with what they've done already (which I personally can't see improving their squad much as we have better players than they've recently got from the market) so if we improve our squad, there is no reason why we shouldn't be able to compete better than this season.

I agree, key word being improve.

The likes of Giggs and Scholes were still the difference for Manure when it came to crunch time and they had always been winners even from the time we had our invincibles.

The best player for arsenal bar cesc since jan has been Old ma Sol. we lost experience and we are regretting it now

Also one thing I think Arsene needs to look at is the rotation of the squad earlier on in the season, the way we've crawled over the finishing line this season in terms of injuries should give cause for concern and something has to be done about it, sort that

everyone knows that the way to handle player fatigue is to have some form of rotation so that ur key men are availble at the crucnh time of the season why would our dear AW not know. now we rely on Eastmond, we spoke of SOng playing too many games and also that of ACN, oh but we heard there is diaby(who is an offensive player) and lets not call denilson
or see Verma now. Injuries can come but they are always exarcebated by constant play week in week out

duduspace:
Another interesting write-up setting the history of Arsenal straight.
http://blog.emiratesstadium.info/2010/04/this-team-will-have-its-day/

another load of hogwash, see RM though spending 300m USD is not sure of winning a title so man its not abt the titles or barenness.

My point is the ethos, the lack of seeing some games tthorugh as he says football is a game of 90mins, or 'self-destructing' in key games.
Lets do a quick review,

We are 71 points now
If we had taken the taken the game at Westham, Burnley, B'ham, Wigan (9 points) and at least drawn at Sunderland we will be at 81 points now tooping the table though we lost to our rivals home and away

The squad players are not good enough and can be cleared out.
Also Fab,Song,Gallas,Verma played too many games making them burn out by the biz end when we need them. A little rotation without loss of quality[color=#990000][/color] helps,
The club shd tell us they are interested in keeping us competitive in the top 4 and not push the extra for the title as the amount spent really does not guarantee a title,

Interesting article and a nice summary of the season, but I don't agree with all the conclusions. This is the same team that was being heralded only last week as having had the most number of late winning goals and attesting to the mental toughness of the squad. If some people can forget all that because of a late collapse at Wigan I can't.
The question you should ask yourself is, Bendtner was playing only because RVP wasn't fit, he should have no problem in motivating himself for a match as his 9 goals in 11 games show.
On the day against Wigan, there were a number of individual errors but on the whole I think this squad had been dragging itself for a while and just didn't have enough strenght to get over the finishing line.

dudu,

On the issue of the late goals, as much as we all know that they were a symbol of mental strenght, they were sorta unwanted in some other games.
I will go through some of these fixtures taking back from Jan this year

This team has a penchant for self destruction. I made a jest when we beat Porto that the second gol we scored them was reminiscent of mistakes Clichy makes that costs us games

03 Sun    The FA Cup A West Ham United   2  1

A late goal from a Vela assist to kill this game.

09 Sat    Barclays Premier League H Everton   2  2

We were lucky to get this point. Denilson nearly killed off with his antics. rosicky lost the ball which came all the way to pienaar. who can foget the unmarked osman

17 Sun    Barclays Premier League A Bolton Wanderers   2  0

super captain

20 Wed    Barclays Premier League H Bolton Wanderers   4  2

denilson conceding a pen. we had to come from behind to take this after 20 mins we were down 2 - 0.yes it showed strength but was it necessary,  no?

2

4 Sun    The FA Cup A Stoke City   1  3

Fabianski and Denilson again,

27 Wed    Barclays Premier League A Aston Villa   0  0

The decline continued in a game we dominated

31 Sun    Barclays Premier League H Manchester United   1  3

no need to say more,  AW now supposedly bids for Sorensen and Loic Remy,  hogwash
February    

07 Sun    Barclays Premier League A Chelsea   0  2

hahh,

10 Wed    Barclays Premier League H Liverpool   1  0

yes this was tough so i give you this

17 Wed    UEFA Champions League A FC Porto   1  2

Calamity Fabianski again!

20 Sat    Barclays Premier League H Sunderland   2  0

tough game,  we edged it too

27 Sat    Barclays Premier League A Stoke City   3  1

down to stoke in 4 mins from the same Delap trow,  unncessary dudu. we struggled, tackled were tackled and even rambo broke his leg. That can never happen in some games by Chelsea n man U they kill the game and the opponents are just straw,
 
March      

06 Sat    Barclays Premier League H Burnley   3  1

it took a gol from aa23 to finally give us a breather .in a game we shd have dominated after letting them come into the game early in the second half,  silvestre again.nicky missed 40000 chances in this game,

09 Tue    UEFA Champions League H FC Porto   5  0

dominated porto, 

13 Sat    Barclays Premier League A Hull City   2  1

we found it so difficult against 10 man burnley though we had all the possession.not goood for me.

20 Sat    Barclays Premier League H West Ham United   2  0

now this is strenght,,  holding out for 50 mins with a man down

27 Sat    Barclays Premier League A Birmingham   1  1

can not hold a 10 min lead for a point after nasri scored,  not good enuff from flappymunia

31 Wed    UEFA Champions League H Barcelona   2  2

the unravelling continued
April      

03 Sat    Barclays Premier League H Wolverhampton   1  0

another late gol in a game we dominated

06 Tue    UEFA Champions League A Barcelona   1  4

all hail the messiless one,

14 Wed    Barclays Premier League A Tottenham Hotspur   1  2

again cant turn possesion in to results and defensive errors from the keeper for the first gol,  he did not need to make that punch.

18 Sun    Barclays Premier League A Wigan Athletic   2  3

Oh the horror,  conceding 3 gols in 0 mins

Some late goals were a resolve from the team but not all,

On nicky i know he will come good but lack of compettiion for places in the team breeds complacency. he knows he is the top attacking option [size=4pt]as he is not a striker to me [/size] so why shd he put in the chances,
he is a striker and strikers do one thing and one thing only,  score goals not as AW said,

“It is a possible idea. But it depends on the personality and the quality of your midfielders. If you have many players who can score that is OK but overall I still believe that strikers are very, very important," he told his club's official website.

“Still we used to say the midfielders are the guys who bring the strikers alive but what is happening now is the strikers are the guys who can bring your midfielders alive. They come to score from deeper positions and you can really do that with one-man up front.

“It is basically the efficiency of the team and the number of goals the team scores. I believe if the whole side scores goals then, for me, the striker is good.

“ Robin van Persie, when he played we always scored three or four goals. He didn’t score too many [himself] but he made a lot. Not only with passing, but with movement and the quality of that movement. Strikers open walls for the deeper players. That is a big part in the modern game.” 20 Jan 2010
http://www.goal.com/en-india/news/2171/premier-league/2010/01/20/1753452/arsene-wenger-highlights-changing-role-of-strikers-at

"We are not close to signing anybody and we are so focused on the [Bolton] game that we forget a little bit to speak about transfers," said Wenger.

Our talks are more focused on 'when is he back?' and it looks like any player we can get back is like a transfer because we have not seen some players this season, like Walcott, like Bendtner."

With only 11 days until the end of the transfer window, Wenger also intends to wait before deciding on whether to allow Jack Wilshere to go out on loan- 20 Jan

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/arsenal/7029409/Arsenal-manager-Arsene-Wenger-to-delay-striker-signing-until-he-assesses-options.html

Now,  he moans  

Wenger - Striker injuries cost us points

By Chris Harris

Arsène Wenger believes Arsenal would have "a few more points" had their strikers not spent so long on the sidelines this season.

Robin Van Persie is back in the squad for Wednesday's North London derby but the Dutchman has endured a five-month lay-off after suffering ankle ligament damage in November.

His absence was exacerbated by an injury to Nicklas Bendtner at the end of October which sidelined the Dane for nearly three months, forcing Andrey Arshavin - now injured himself - into an unfamiliar central role for a sizeable chunk of the season.

Arsenal have just about kept pace with the Premier League leaders despite their injury woes but Wenger suspects that his team might be looking down on the rest of the top flight if they had kept their strikers fit for longer.

"If you look at our goalscoring record, it has gone down when our strikers have been injured," said Wenger at his pre-match press conference.

"But I am as well proud that we are still in the fight despite all the injured players we have had throughout the whole season.

"It is difficult to say what would have happened had they not been injured. But I am confident we would have a few more points."-14 April
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/wenger-striker-injuries-cost-us-points

[size=20pt]isnt this a trend of hogwash?[/size]

Before the first whistle had blown this season, Arsenal were largely unfancied. Only Thomas Vermaelen had arrived to bolster a side who had required a remarkable turnaround just to finish fourth the year before. With United, Chelsea and Liverpool (whoops) expected to contest the title, our Champions League qualification was now under threat. Former stalwarts like Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor had jumped ship to the snowballing threat of Manchester City, whilst Tottenham were insistent yet again that this would be ‘their year’.

When our season began at Goodison Park, we took people by surprise. In a new 4-3-3 [/b]system based on [b]Barcelona’s high-tempo model, we hammered a lacklustre Everton 6-1 at Goodison Park. Every one of the front six worked to exhaustion, chasing and harrying and not allowing Everton a moment on the ball. It was exemplary stuff.

The form continued and so did the victories. Before long talk of Arsenal failing to make the Champions League had metamorphosed in to talk of title challenges and ending the wait for a trophy. The players, through graft and no small share of ability, had stuffed one up the critics. And do you know what? They were proud.

Unfortunately, pride - as they’ve said ever since Adam and Eve got a bit haughty about their jungle paradise - comes before a fall. As soon as Arsenal felt they were part of the top three rather than the chasing pack, they were a different team. The points were still racking up, but under different circumstances. The work-rate had dropped and teams were given an easier ride. We celebrated last-minute winners when perhaps we ought to have been wondering why they were needed. The hallmark of this Arsenal side’s early season form was that you barely had time to think, let alone get a foothold in the game.

Fitness problems played their part. The injury to Robin van Persie meant that we lost not only our best finisher but also the natural leader of that attacking line. He was the one who instigated the pressure; who drove those around him to work ever harder. Perhaps it’s also fair to say that as the injuries kept on coming, the players who remained simply tire[/b]d.

I’m not sure I buy that. We have one of the youngest, most athletic squads in the league - Arsene wouldn’t have it any other way. [b][b]What actually happened was that this team forgot what had lifted them above the chasing pack and alongside United and Chelsea. It wasn’t the skill of Arshavin, the passing of Fabregas, or the shotgun striking of Robin van Persie. The technical ability of this team has never been in doubt. What marked this team’s improvement was working hard for each other and defending as a unit.[/b]

You’d think the exhibition of team play that Barcelona put on for us across two legs might have acted as something of a wake up call. It didn’t. Following on from that we were beaten by a super-motivated Spurs team and, from a position of absolute comfort, managed to crumble in just ten minutes against Wigan to be beaten 3-2. “Mental strength”, one fears, is a facade that Arsene’s post-match interviews can no longer keep from falling down.

People will point to individual errors, and rightly so. Only a player far more gifted than Abou Diaby would deserve the indulgence with which the manager has treated his lack of defensive discipline. Lukasz Fabianski, meanwhile, is far more befitting of the “clown” jibe once hurled at his countryman, Jan Tomaszewski. Massimo Taibi was shunted out of United after just four games - one wonders how long Arsene will take to learn the lesson that some players are just not cut out for the high-pressure environment of Premier League football.

However, it’s important to remember that any player can make a mistake. Thomas Vermaelen might go to clear and completely miss the ball, but it doesn’t matter if Sol Campbell is there to tidy it up. If a unit is strong most individual mistakes are recoverable. And, frankly, if you’re concentrating sufficiently on your responsibilities then they’re less likely to happen at all. The problem with this team is that they believe they are the “great entertainers” the press build them up as. But if you don’t do the basic work, skill is pointless. Barcelona recognise that they can’t do any damage without the ball, so they fight incredibly hard to get it.

I mentioned Sol Campbell there. You have to feel for him. As a friend said yesterday, he plays every game as if it’s his last - probably because it might well be. But the thing to remember about Sol is that, a few ‘wilderness years’ aside, he’s done that for his entire career. The difference between a player like him, who has won medals and accolades at every level, and an unfulfilled talent like Abou Diaby is entirely psychological. Campbell can’t hold a candle to Diaby’s technique or fitness. But Sol knows that to win a title you have to fight just as hard if not harder than a team battling relegation. Every ball, every tackle, every header is a statement of intent. Sol wore the armband yesterday, and deserved better from those around him. He must be kept on as an example of the required attitude.

Although Sol was a January signing, this problem is not something that can be remedied in the transfer market. An ethos cannot be bought, and Arsene knows that better than anyone. At the start of the season I was impressed that our usually stubborn manager had revised his thinking: he’d changed his formation, and seemed to have recognised that hard work had as big a part to play as technical proficiency. Over the course of the season, perversely just as success started to come, that philosophy was lost.

The responsibility lies with the manager. It’s no good signing another two centre-halves if the team is not compelled to work for each other. Every player must know that if he does not fulfil his responsibility to the team, he will pay the price with his place. Not in the starting-line up for the next game, but in the squad. If we want success here, we only have room for winners. It’s a lesson the likes of Nani have learnt well at Manchester United. If we want to match their achievements, our players will have to suffer the same kind of tough love. Over to you, Arsene

Arsenal must learn the difference between fourth and first

http://gunnerblog.com/?p=2304


dudu the ethos is the word, these guys doo not have a team mentality no more which is why they are content to rise when Cesc is up for a game but cant help him when he is down.

Nani has improved tremendously when he did not make the bench consistently and he scored two great gols against bayern and demolished Arsenal at the emirates
If NB52 after his shambolicness against Burnley knows he will still play against Porto (in the 2nd round of UCL) why would he bother himself and not have a [size=16pt]sense of entitlement?[/size]
This applies to the other passengers in our team.

Wigan 3-2 Arsenal: Spineless bottlers get what they deserve

First things first, I've been quick to praise this team throughout the season when they've kept battling and shown character. A struggle to beat 10 man Wolves, for example, can be viewed as a positive when you just don't give up and grab the late winner. Conversely, when we capitulate as we did yesterday, there's got to be a measure of criticism.

Secondly, while doubts I have about the manager grow as another season ends without a trophy I'm not joining in the chorus of those who want him to go. We've been challenging for the title almost to the very end and while I understand completely why yesterday's defeat would provoke a great deal of negative reaction you can't go from one extreme to the other that quickly.

That's not to say the manager doesn't have questions to answer, clearly he does. After the game yesterday he said:

   I believe that we were not focussed and were not disciplined and we got caught. In football you have to keep focussed for 90 minutes. After we went 2-0 up our game lacked cohesion and discipline and I always felt that we could be punished.

The first half was pretty turgid. It was real end of season fare. Arsenal looked like a team that thought they had nothing to play for, Wigan tried but didn't really threaten. Our performance was summed up when Theo Walcott was sent through by Diaby, but instead of shooting he chose to cut back. Nobody out there really wanted to take responsibility. Alan Smith on Sky said Theo didn't shoot because of a lack of confidence. I don't understand that one bit. How much confidence do you need to smack a shot on target from less than 10 yards out?

We took the lead when Nicklas Bendtner dropped deep, played a nice ball into the path of Theo and his quick feet were too much for the defenders and the keeper and he made it 1-0. Not long afterwards he went on a decent solo run and fired a shot just high and wide and it was better from Arsenal.

The second half began well. Bendnter again set up a great chance for Diaby but the Frenchman's attempted finish was lethargic, at best, and Kirkland saved. From the resulting corner Sylvester scored with a decent header which the Arsenal players thought was hilarious. So at 2-0 you're looking for the team to be professional, to look at it as an outside chance of getting a few goals back in the goal difference stakes, and to go on, be ruthless and kill the game off. Arsenal should have made sure.

Instead they thought it was won, coasted half-heartedly through the rest of the game and got taught the same lesson by Wigan as we had been taught by Sp*rs and Barcelona - desire and will to win a game goes a long, long way. As it became clear Arsenal weren't particularly interested in doing anything more than hanging on to the two goal lead, as evidenced by the manager's reluctance to bring on Robin van Persie, Wigan kept at us knowing one goal could very well put the shits up us. And how right they were.

If you watch replays of Wigan's first goal you can see Abou Diaby running alongside goalscorer Ben Watson. The ball goes wide, Watson keeps going into the area, Diaby trundles along watching the ball and when it's fizzed back into our box Watson is alone, with all the time in the world to sidefoot past Lukasz Fabianski. This is the kind of goal that I've been talking about all season. An individual mistake that is nothing to do with lack of skill or ability, it's entirely down to laziness. Diaby must have known Watson was his man, that he had defensive responsibility, yet still he shirked it. This goal would not have been difficult to prevent, it just required a little concentration and defensive discipline, but once again we've been found wanting in that area. I can point out specific examples of this happening before this season but lessons don't ever seem to be learned.

With the goal giving them a huge boost Wigan just went for it. There's no other way to describe it. They knew this was an Arsenal team capable of conceding at any time and with Premier League survival to play for (clearly more important than any outside chance of an actual trophy, like) they went at us. Nasri cleared off the line from one of a succession of corners but the goal was coming, you just knew it. And when you play Lukasz Fabianski in goal, the longer the game goes without him dropping a massive clanger, the more nervous you get.

Wigan took a corner from our left hand side, Fabianski came, got two hands on it and promptly fumbled it onto the head of Titus fucking Bramble who headed it over the line. Clichy's vain attempt to hack it clear was too late. 2-2. I know we're supposed to believe Almunia had a wrist injury but I suspect he could have played yesterday and I expect him to play against City. Maybe the manager thought Wigan away would be a nice easy way for Fabianski to redeem himself for his outrageously bad season so far but to me it's clear the Pole has no business playing at this level right now.

He might well be a very nice young man, he might well have the reflexes of a cat and pull off wonder saves in training day after day, the bottom line is he makes mistakes in every single game he plays and most of those mistakes cost Arsenal goals. He has the mental strength of Joey Deacon. I've had to reassess the way I judge players after Alex Song proved me wronger than wrong but I don't think I'm wrong this time when I say Fabianski is not good enough. He's had plenty of chances, he's pretty much bleeped them all up. It's not nice to see, he was clearly upset, but his own personal torment is really not an issue. He's got to be judged by what he does when he plays for Arsenal and on that basis I can only say he's as poor a keeper as I've ever seen in an Arsenal shirt.

A draw would have been bad enough but when Charles N'Zogbia took the ball across the penalty area and cracked in a left footed shot off the post the humiliation was complete. 2-0 up with ten minutes to go and you end up losing 3-2. There's something seriously wrong there. Before I go on, let me give credit to Wigan. They didn't give up, they kept fighting and trying and hoping, and they got their reward. It's as famous a victory as they'll ever have, the circumstances of it were incredible, and they'll live to fight another year at the top. Good luck to them.

Arsenal too got exactly what they deserved from that game. Nothing. I don't want to hear one thing about injuries and players missing. The manager refused to use that as an excuse after the game and nor should any fan. The players we had out there were capable of going 2-0 up, there's no reason why they couldn't have won that game.

It's after such a performance that you have to question the intelligence of some of our players. You've watched the best team in the world work like Trojans as they beat you in the Champions League. You've seen your local rivals do exactly the same during a painful midweek defeat. So why do some of these players think it's ok for them to coast through a game like this? It's because they look at Wigan as a game they just have to turn up to win. It's because they're too cosseted, too comfortable and too cocksure. They think they're far better than they actually are.

I normally try not to single out players but Abou Diaby drove me mental yesterday. Not too long ago he was putting in the kind of dynamic displays that made us all think we'd got a seriously good player on our hands. In recent weeks he's been found wanting and his sloppy, lazy play encapsulated Arsenal's performance. I felt sorry for young Craig Eastmond who tried his hardest but is barely ready for this level. He needed the senior midfield partners to help him out and to show him the way. Eastmond ran his socks off, harried, tackled, got stuck in, Diaby ambled his way through the game. Like Fabiasnki, he has had many chances and has shown that he's got plenty of talent - yesterday showed that he doesn't have the attitude or the balls to be a top player. He was abject.

Ultimately though questions have to be asked of Arsene. Why did he not give Robin van Persie twenty minutes? He needs the match sharpness ahead of the City game and would have provided a real attacking threat. Throwing him on with just injury time left was almost embarrassing. What made Arsene think Fran Merida, a player who is leaving the club in the summer by all accounts, would have been a better option than van Persie? Where is his motivation to win a game for Arsenal? I've nothing against the lad, he's decided his career will be better furthered elsewhere and that's entirely down to him, but it was an odd change for me.

Wenger spoke afterwards about us having problems keeping the ball, but that wasn't anything to do with the pitch or the way Wigan tackled us, it was entirely about our own attitude. It was clear we were coasting through that game and despite what he says I believe Arsene thought it was won as well. He didn't see Wigan as any kind of threat and so there was no real urgency on his part to put things right. That the changes he was making came in the 81st minute tells you exactly that.

He was happy to settle for the mediocre win and deflect any post-match criticism of our performance by talking about lacking a bit 'the sharpness', the midweek games, the injuries, and pointing to the fact we got three points. He got it spectacularly wrong. Those players needed a rocket up their arses yesterday. They needed to be reminded they were playing for the Arsenal, wearing our shirt, representing those fans who made the long journey north early yesterday morning, and the way we got turned over by Wigan was nothing short of a disgrace. The players and the manager let the club down yesterday.

This morning we should be sitting comfortably in third, just two points behind United, three behind Chelsea, and with three games to go hoping against hope that something miraculous might happen. Instead we're now looking nervously over our shoulders at Man City and Sp*rs and wondering if we can hang on to third place.

Watching yesterday you would never have known this Arsenal team still had an outside chance of winning the league title. They lacked motivation, they lacked discipline, they lacked balls and most of all they lacked heart. And that is about the worst thing I can accuse any Arsenal team of. Lack of talent and ability I can live with all day long once we try our best. If, for some players, that's their idea of their best then we've got to be ruthless and let them ply their trade elsewhere. And if the manager can't motivate his players properly for a game like this then he's got to take long, hard look at himself too.

Sorry to start your Monday like this but this result has really annoyed me. Barcelona I lived with, even Sp*rs I could cope with, but yesterday's craven surrender of a game we should have won is just not something I can defend in any shape or form.

After the game the Mugsmasher called over to my house and we played a bit of FIFA.

"That result has added truth to the table", he said. "You're the third best team in the league".

With three games to go, one of them against a team who could nick that position, we've got to go out and prove it. We've got to react. Over to you, Arsenal.

Arseblog of the day

dudu, drop it, lack of spending just not justify lack of heart shown against Wigan or inability to hold and see games to the end at Westham and B'ham

But i agree with you with financial stability is key which is why i like Arsene's policy but reinforcement/tweaking the squad will not bankrupt the club